The Statistics of Buchenwald
The Dead of Buchenwald
Based on Nazi records and other evidence collected after liberation of the camp, the number of those who died or were murdered under the immediate influence of Buchenwald is no fewer than 55,000 victims. This number must be regarded as the minimum number of deaths brought about by Nazi barbarism in Buchenwald. Historian Leni Yahil estimates
the actual number of deaths in Buchenwald
at 70,000, or 30% of the total of all
prisoners admitted. She includes in
this number the figures given below, plus the
number of prisoners evacuated in the week
before liberation in April 1945.
Not included in these numbers are the many hundreds who froze or starved to death on transports to and from Buchenwald. Not Included in these numbers are the numbers of dead from transports to liquidation camps that did not leave Buchenwald solely as liquidation transports. That, too, would amount to several hundred victims.
| TOTAL KILLED IN CAMP (Oct 1, 1937 - April 10, 1945): |
34,566 |
| TOTAL RUSSIAN POWs MURDERED: |
7,200 |
| TOTAL EXECUTIONS: |
1,100 |
| TOTAL SENT ON LIQUIDATION TRANSPORTS:* |
11,060 |
| TOTAL BUCHENWALD DEATH TOLL: |
53,926 |
Admissions and Deaths in Buchenwald
The following table shows the total number of all prisoners who came to Buchenwald as new admissions.
Death tolls contain only those registered in the hospital as deaths; not included are the numbers of murdered Russian prisoners of war, executed prisoners and those prisoners sent on death transports. Also missing is the number of victims who died or were beaten to death on the way to and from Weimar during transports.
|
Admissions |
Deaths |
1937 |
2,912 |
48 |
1938 |
20,122 |
771 |
1939 |
9,553 |
1,235 |
1940 |
2,525 |
1,772 |
1941 |
5,890 |
1,522 |
1942 |
14,111 |
2,898 |
1943 |
42,177 |
3,516 |
1944 |
97,867 |
8,644 |
1945 (3 months) |
43,823 |
13,056 |
TOTAL |
238,980 |
33,462 |
Nations Represented in Buchenwald
Germans |
Austrians |
French |
Spanish |
Italians |
Swiss |
Czechs |
Yugoslavs |
Croats |
Albanians |
Greeks |
Bulgarians |
Romanians |
Poles |
Russians |
Belgians |
Dutch |
Luxemburgers |
Latvians |
Lithuanians |
Estonians |
Danes |
Norwegians |
English |
Americans |
Mexicans |
Brazilians |
Chinese |
Egyptians |
Canadians |
Hungarians |
Ukrainians |
Various African Nations |
| *Liquidation Transports |
|
| Gas transport to Sonneberg, July 1940 |
100 |
| Gas transport of Jews to Bernburg, [February] 1942 |
500 |
| Gas transport of Jews to Bernburg, [March] 1942 |
200 |
| Transport of Dutch Jews to Mauthausen, 1941 |
341 |
| Various transports to Auschwitz in the year 1943 |
1,180 |
| Transport of children to Auschwitz, 1943 |
200 |
| Transport of Jews to Auschwitz, 1944 |
2,101 |
| Deaths in Dora, disguised as liquidation transport to Auschwitz |
3,000 |
| Transports to Bergen-Belsen, 1944 |
3,438 |
|
|
|
|
| TOTAL DEATH TOLL |
53,926 |
Sources: Hackett, David. (Translator) The Buchenwald Report. CO: Westview Press, 1997.
Leni Yahil, The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932-1945, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 536 |